scholarly journals Conserving evolutionarily distinct species is critical to safeguard human well-being

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Molina-Venegas

AbstractAlthough there is growing interest in safeguarding the Tree of Life to preserve the human benefits that are directly provided by biodiversity, their evolutionary distribution remains unknown, which has hampered our understanding of the potential of phylodiversity indicators to evince them. Here, I drew on a global review of plant benefits and comprehensive phylogenetic information to breakdown their evolutionary distribution and thereby show why the commonly used Phylogenetic Diversity and Evolutionary Distinctiveness indicators can unequivocally help to preserve these natural services. Beneficial species clumped within phylogenetically overdispersed genera and closely related species often contributed very few and redundant benefits, suggesting that multiple plant lineages are required to maintain a wide variety of services. Yet, a reduced number of species stood out as multi-beneficial and evolutionarily distinct plants relative to both the entire phylogeny and the subset of beneficial species, and they collectively contributed a higher-than-expected number of records for most types of benefits. In addition to providing a clear mechanistic understanding for the recently proved success of Phylogenetic Diversity in capturing plant benefits, these findings stress the decisive role that conservation programmes aimed at protecting evolutionarily distinct taxa will play in safeguarding the beneficial potential of biodiversity for the future.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Molina-Venegas

Abstract Although there is growing interest in safeguarding the Tree of Life to preserve the human benefits that are directly provided by biodiversity, their evolutionary distribution remains unknown, which has hampered our understanding of the potential of phylodiversity indicators to evince them. Here, I drew on a global review of plant services and comprehensive phylogenetic information to breakdown their evolutionary distribution and thereby show why the commonly used Phylogenetic Diversity and Evolutionary Distinctiveness indicators can unequivocally help to preserve these natural benefits. Beneficial species clumped within phylogenetically overdispersed genera and closely related taxa often contributed very few and redundant services, suggesting that multiple plant lineages are required to maintain a wide variety of benefits. Yet, a reduced number of species stood out as multi-beneficial and evolutionarily distinct plants relative to both the entire phylogeny and the subset of beneficial species, and they collectively contributed a higher-than-expected number of records for most types of benefits. In addition to providing a clear mechanistic understanding for the recently proved success of Phylogenetic Diversity in capturing plant benefits, these findings stress the decisive role that conservation programmes aimed at protecting evolutionarily distinct taxa will pay in safeguarding the beneficial potential of biodiversity for the future.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 528 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
JOSÉ SAID GUTIÉRREZ-ORTEGA ◽  
MIGUEL ANGEL PÉREZ-FARRERA ◽  
JEFFREY CHEMNICK ◽  
TIMOTHY J. GREGORY

The cycad genus Dioon comprises 17 species from Mexico and Honduras, all of them delimited based on their morphological variation and geographic distribution. A recent evaluation of the biological variation among Dioon populations from Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, demonstrated that the concept of the species Dioon merolae actually consists of three lineages that should be recognized as different taxa. One lineage was already described as Dioon oaxacensis, leaving the concept of Dioon merolae comprising two lineages distributed on both sides of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. However, there are conspicuous morphological differences between these two lineages. Here, we tested whether such a differentiation within the concept of Dioon merolae merits the differentiation of two different taxa. We evaluated the qualitative and morphometric variation among populations belonging to the Dioon merolae lineages, and compared it with the closely related species Dioon oaxacensis. Morphological observations and statistical tests demonstrated that the populations of southeastern Oaxaca, traditionally considered as part of Dioon merolae, represent a distinct species that we described as Dioon salas-moralesae. Identifying the diagnostic characters of this new species helps enable an understanding of the criteria that should be considered to delineate the boundaries between other cycad species.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 397 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
YA QUN TAO ◽  
GUO GENG JIA ◽  
SEIN LAI LAI AUNG ◽  
QING LI WU ◽  
HONG XUE LU ◽  
...  

Two Alternaria species, A. carotiincultae and A. glehniae sp. nov. are isolated from necrotic leaf symptoms of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. and Glehnia littoralis Fr. Schmidt ex Miq in China, respectively. The two species are determined as distinct species belonging to sect. Radicina of Alternaria based on morphology and a multigene analysis of ITS, EF-1α, RPB2 and ATPase sequences. Alternaria glehniae is illustrated here as a novel species because the conidial size, septa and sporulation patterns are different from its closely related species. A. carotiincultae is also described as a new record in China.


1963 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1069-1077 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Schad

The genus Pseudophysaloptera, recognized as a genus distinct from Physatoptera, is tentatively considered monotypic. The several species previously assigned to the genus Pseudophysaloptera, and the closely related species Physaloptera kotlani, have been reduced to one polytypic species, Pseudophysaloptera formosana, with two subspecies, P. f. formosana and P. f. soricina. The former occurs in Oriental species of Suncus, while the latter occurs in Palaearctic and Ethiopian soricid insectivores. North American specimens, which may represent a distinct species, are tentatively assigned to P. f. soricina. Presently available collections are only sufficient for a tentative identification of the Nearctic form.


Lankesteriana ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stig Dalström

The plant that was first called “Odontoglossum wyattianum” by Gurney Wilson was exhibited at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on January 3, 1928. No official description was ever published and no type specimen was ever designated, or has surfaced, hence making this distinct species a taxonomic ‘ghost’. The taxonomic validation of Odontoglossum wyattianum is made here through the designation of a holotype, together with a diagnosis, a brief taxonomic history and comparison with similar and closely related species.


2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
T. KUROSAWA

Two new species of Euphorbiaceae (sensu stricto), Mallotus bicarpellatus (Acalyphoideae) and Croton nepalensis (Crotonoideae), are described from Nepal. Mallotus bicarpellatus is closely related to M. philippensis but differs in having 1 or 2 pairs of leaf glands distinctly separated from the petiole attachment, pistillate flowers with staminodes and longer pedicels, and fewer locules and stigmas. Croton nepalensis differs from C. tiglium in having leaves with truncate, subcordate or rounded base, smaller, broadly ovoid capsules, and smaller seeds. A table is provided showing how Croton nepalensis differs from other closely related species. Croton himalaicus is here regarded as a synonym of C. tiglium, though it has been treated variously as a distinct species or a synonym of C. tiglium or C. birmanicus by recent authors. Distribution maps and graphs of altitudinal distribution are given for the new species.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. 71-81
Author(s):  
YOUHUA CHEN

In theoretical ecology and community ecology, it is still unclear how phylogenetic community structure and species distributions are linked together. In this paper, a neutral model for evaluating phylogenetic constraints on species diversity and distribution patterns is developed to address these issues. To accomplish this, temporal species distribution and diversity patterns are evaluated and simulated by considering the impact of phylogenetic relatedness of species in a lattice landscape with square grids. A continuous patch for the resultant distributional range map of a species is defined as a group of grids in which the interior grids are adjacent to each other while the edge grids of the patch are isolated from other remaining grids in the range map. The adjacency or isolation of a grid with respect to another grid follows the von Neumann neighborhood criterion. The hypothesis tested is: phylogenetically closely related species tend to avoid each other (phylogenetic dilution), which produces a phylogenetic overdispersion pattern. In this case, all species have similar species abundances and distribution-patch size patterns. In contrast, if closely related species tend to associate together (phylogenetic concentration), a phylogenetic clustering pattern emerges: phylogenetically distinct species tend to have higher abundances and more large distribution patches. Using simulations, this paper presents results which demonstrate the reverse phenomenon: if it is assumed that phylogenetic relatedness of species is modeled as a dilution effect, the resultant distributional maps for evolutionarily distinct species present significantly increased numbers of continuous large patches. An evolutionarily distinct clade tends to have significantly higher relative abundance than other clades in all simulations. It was also found that if phylogenetic relatedness of species is modeled as a concentration effect, the simulated distributional map of each species would present a similar percentage of large patches for both evolutionarily unique and common clades for many cases when the community size is large enough. However, being similar to dilution effect, the resultant species relative abundance for evolutionarily unique clade is significantly higher than that for evolutionarily common clade. In conclusion, evolutionary distinct species will have more chances to survive with high populations and less fragmented distributional range in environments where the phylogenetic dilution effect is functioning. It is hoped that these results contributed to clarifying the complex associations generated by phylogenetic community structure in future ecological and evolutionary studies.


1977 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Eugene Munroe

AbstractLectotypes are designated for Margaronia curvilinea Janse, 1924, and Margaronia pratti Janse, 1924. These species are referred to Palpita Hübner, [1808], as new combinations. They are redescribed and differentiated from certain closely related species. Phalaena Geometra annulata Fabricius, 1794, and Botys partialis Lederer, 1863, are treated as species inquirenda in the absence of type material. Glyphodes celsalis Walker, 1859, and Margaronia inusitata Butler, 1879, are treated as distinct species and are transferred to Palpita as new combinations. Margaronia warrenalis Swinhoe, 1894, is transferred to Palpita as a new combination; a lectotype is designated for this species and its characters are compared with those of P. curvilinea. Palpita varii n. sp., from Manusela, Ceram, and P. jansei n. sp., from the Island of Mioswar, Geelvink Bay, New Guinea, are described from holotypes drawn from the type-series of P. pratti; characters differentiating these three species are given.


1927 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie J. Triffitt ◽  
J. N. Oldham

During the pursuit of field work in the neighbourhood of Warwick in which the collection and examination of insects was involved, it was observed whilst carrying out dissections of dung-infesting beetles that several of them had attached to various parts of the exoskeleton collections of what were at first taken to be fungus spores. On close examination, however, these adherent bodies were discovered to be encysted nematodes which were using the beetles as carrying agents, whereby their transference to fresh dung, required for further development, would be assured.Our attention was drawn to a short note, written by Christie (1925), in which this author discusses the finding of what was either Rhabditis coarctata Leuck. or a closely related species on a number of species of dung beetles in America. With this information in mind, it was decided to culture the worms in order to follow out the life-cycle, determine the species, and make observations on the behaviour of the nematodes in relation to the insects on which they were found attached.


PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn L. Jensen ◽  
Arne Ø. Mooers ◽  
Adalgisa Caccone ◽  
Michael A. Russello

In the midst of the current biodiversity crisis, conservation efforts might profitably be directed towards ensuring that extinctions do not result in inordinate losses of evolutionary history. Numerous methods have been developed to evaluate the importance of species based on their contribution to total phylogenetic diversity on trees and networks, but existing methods fail to take complementarity into account, and thus cannot identify the best order or subset of taxa to protect. Here, we develop a novel iterative calculation of the heightened evolutionary distinctiveness and globally endangered metric (I-HEDGE) that produces the optimal ranked list for conservation prioritization, taking into account complementarity and based on both phylogenetic diversity and extinction probability. We applied this metric to a phylogenetic network based on mitochondrial control region data from extant and recently extinct giant Galápagos tortoises, a highly endangered group of closely related species. We found that the restoration of two extinct species (a project currently underway) will contribute the greatest gain in phylogenetic diversity, and present an ordered list of rankings that is the optimum complementarity set for conservation prioritization.


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